Tears & Tricolour for officerís final journey

- Family blames govt for delay in medical assistance, home secretary denies charge

ROSHAN KUMAR

On Monday morning, Ankit bade goodbye to his father Indrajit Singh off to Aurangabad. On Tuesday afternoon, his father returned, draped in Tricolour, for a final goodbye from Ankit and other inconsolable relatives.

A little more than 24 hours has changed the Singhs ó residents of AB Enclave Apartment, Ujra Nagar (Rajeev Nagar). Indrajit, the CRPF deputy commandant, died at Apollo Hospital in Ranchi on Monday evening after a series of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) went off while being defused without help of bomb disposal squad in Maoist-hit Aurangabad district. Two other CRPF jawans ó Pawan Dahia and T Punnarao ó were also killed in the incident. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has condoled the death of the three CRPF personnel. After guard of honour at CRPF state headquarters at Moinul Haque Stadium, Ankit accompanied the coffin to their residence around 1.30pm only to find his mother Durgawati Devi and grandmother breaking into tears.

Indrajitís uncle Satyanarayan Singh, who too was sobbing, said: ďHe left for Aurangabad on Monday morning after his younger son Ankitís JEE-Main.Ē Ankitís elder brother Abhijit is a final-year engineering student in Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh). A relative said: ďHad proper medical assistance been provided to the injured persons at Aurangabad Sadar hospital, Indrajit would have been saved. Also, the helicopters took time in lifting the injured from the site.Ē

Home department principal secretary Amir Subhani denied the allegation that there was any delay in providing helicopters for airlifting the injured.

The family members claimed to have learnt about Indrajitís death from television. But the CRPF said the person seen in the footage is a jawan undergoing treatment at a Ranchi hospital and not the deputy commandant.

Around 3.10pm on Tuesday, Abhijit reached from Bilaspur. The body, accompanied by RJD MLA Bhai Virendra, was later taken to Indrajitís native village at Maner.

Explosives found

Security personnel on Tuesday recovered six IEDs from Tandwa under Bankebazaar police station area in Gaya district. Four of those were defused. Three more IEDs were found buried in Aurangabad.